A bit of a freeze

It will be nice when the month is up and a spring arrives. The life of the camper is the outside sort of life. So the winter months are to be endured and if us nomads can agree on anything it is to curse the hardships of a world filled with ice, mud and a bitter wind.

Now when I lived in a flat made of many bricks there were few preparations to be made for the winter months. Just remember, advised the letter from the agency, to keep the central heating on. As we know the liquids can feeze and as they do so they will expand leaving you with the headache of some very expensive destruction. The caravan too has many arteries and care must be taken to ensure these do not burst asunder as the weather readings drop lower and still lower again.  So at night before retiring to bed I will switch the water pump off and drain the hose pipes of water that may freeze. And I will remove the whale water pump and bring it inside since these things can be expensive to replace and there is never a need to open a tap while asleep. And the heating will be left on during the night. And I will ensure the aquaroll is always more than half full as such a volume of water is less likely to freeze up. And I will also ensure the aquaroll is off the ground since this indeed is a conductor of the cold.

All these little things seem to be working so that all things considered, life in a caravan during winter is no great hardship. Some will complain about the morning darkness, but when you live it on a farm where there is no pollution of light, the morning trip to the wash house can be a moment to marvel at this superb universe of ours. To look up at the sky, as I did this morning, and to gaze at that red planet we call Mars and all those stars that are so much brighter on a clear and freezing winter's morning - can a man really complain about such a life?

And it gets better. The girlfriend of mine decided she would treat me to an early birthday present so off we went to tescos. Tescos is more than a food store - it will sell all sorts of electrical appliances. Out we came with a twenty two inch television set with a built in dvd player and something called freeview. When this was set up above the truma heater the caravan was more or less transformed into a mini cinema. As I experimented with the features of this electrical marvel, my mind was cast back many years to a time when you changed your channel by turning a clicking dial - and if you were lucky you could choose between maybe three or four channels, but if it was too early or too late you would have a static image of a girl and clown indicating the station was closed.　

Now with the freeview there are scores of channels and you would be a strange character to be sure if you were unable to find something of interest. So if winter means being confined to the insides of a small caravan, then at least it can be entertaining with my new television and my digital radio and computer and internet and books.

Peace